100K Challenge Blog Posts

The results are in! Just as we hit the midway mark of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, we are thrilled to report that participating shelters helped save nearly 20,000 animals’ lives during the month of August. The shelters achieved this staggering feat by adopting out or reuniting animals with their pet parents. We couldn’t be more impressed or pleased that 19,114 cats and dogs found forever homes in just 30 days—that’s a combined increase of nearly 5,000 lives saved over the same month in 2011!

Our contestants approached this year’s Challenge with creativity, which led to happy animals and pet parents all around. These shelters kicked off August with special events drawing adopters of all ages and pet preferences. From games and food giveaways to adoption fee-waived specials, each shelter utilized innovative ideas to match tons of furry best friends with loving adopters. We think this strong start in August is a sure sign of good things to come as these shelters keep on truckin’ toward the finish line at the end of October.

We’d like to congratulate the shelters in each region that saved the most additional cats and dogs by the end of the first month of the Challenge: Canyon County Animal Shelter (Caldwell, ID) in the West region, City of San Antonio Animal Care Services in the South Central region, Toledo Area Humane Society in the North Central region, The Humane Society of Charlotte in the Southeast region and Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Center (BARCS) in the Northeast region. These participants will each receive a $5,000 Fast Start grant for working so hard to pull ahead of the competition. Congrats!

But the fun is just beginning. With a month and a half left to go, our contestants have plenty of time to buckle down, get creative, and find even more ways to find more loving forever homes for animals in need. You can follow all their triumphs on the $100K Challenge website.

In an exciting weekend of pet adoption events nationwide, 50 animal shelters kicked off the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge by finding loving forever homes for more than 2,700 animals. From California to Maine, adopters visited local shelters to show their support for the Challenge and went home with furry best friends of all shapes and sizes.

Here are some of the highlights from this fur-filled weekend:

When Bangor Humane Society had just one puppy left in the building, Ike—previously accompanied by his brother, Spike—the Maine agency promised his adopter a special surprise. "Spike and Ike's adoption fees were paid for by their foster parents, in turn making their adoption fees free to their new families," BHS explained to its Facebook fans. "Because of this, BOTH of Spike and Ike's adoptive families decided to pay it forward, and pay for the adoptions of two other dogs that are still in the building!”

In what turned out to be a very successful partnership, the Flagler Humane Society teamed up with local groomer Animal House Groomers, which helped transform some of the scruffier pets into adorable candidates for adoption during kick-off weekend event. The groomers worked makeover magic on this lucky pup, Scrapie, who later found a loving home.

Beyonce, a pretty pup rescued from an inhumane situation, was one of 122 adoptions at Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center over the course of the weekend. “Although her adoption was free today,” the Pennsylvania agency told its Facebook fans, “she had a $50 sponsorship, and her adopter left an additional $250!”

Lambriar, Inc., one of the largest puppy brokers in the United States, has announced that it is closing its kennel doors for good. Puppy brokers like Lambriar are middlemen, buying dogs from puppy mills and distributing them to pet stores throughout the country. Brokers are an important cog in the wheel of the cruel and inhumane puppy mill industry.

We have been working hard to shed light on the link between puppy mills and pet store puppies, and it seems to be working! As more and more people take our No Pet Store Puppies pledge not to buy anything in stores that sell puppies, the industry will continue to feel the ripple effects and be forced to make changes.

If you haven’t taken the No Pet Store Puppies pledge yet, please do! And please be sure to share it with your friends so that one day, puppy mill cruelty will be a distant memory.

It is here, people! August 1 is the official kickoff of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, when shelters across the country will engage in a friendly, three-month competition to save more animals’ lives.

This weekend, the 50 shelter contestants are pulling out all the stops to get the party started right. From all-night adoption parties to special promotions (hello, free cats!), these events are sure to get the public pumped up to adopt a pet and help their local shelters find more pets more homes.

And don’t forget to follow @ASPCALive as we bring you all the minute-by-minute kick-off action this weekend. Join the conversation by using the hashtag #100KChallenge and help your favorite shelter find homes for even more animals!

It’s been an exciting week at the ASPCA, since we just announced the 50 finalists of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge. These 50 groups, all animal welfare organizations, now move on to the next round of our competition. Every contestant is ultimately a winner because every group will be working to save more animals’ lives. Those competitors who have the biggest increases in lives saved over the same time period last year—as well as those that do the best job of engaging their communities—will be eligible to share in the more than $500,000 in prize grants we are awarding for their life-saving work.

Shelters in every region of the country are entered in the challenge, and they need your support. Wouldn’t it be nice if the shelter where you adopted your dog and cat won lots of money to save more pets like yours? Even if you won’t be able to adopt a dog or cat this year, you can help by promoting your favorite shelter through social media during the competition or by telling your friends to consider adopting their next pet from that shelter. I hope you all will pick a shelter to support. You can find out more at www.aspca.org/100K.